Concord on Tour – UKAC R1

With the whole country having been effected by the weather over the start of this season, it has been difficult for many people to race anywhere. However the lack of seat time so far this season didn’t stop Team Concord, who picked up many fantastic results and plenty of silverware came back to Essex.

The first round of the UKAC was held at Oxton Raceway by the Nottingham club. A cold but dry weekend saw some fast competitive racing across the board.

Team Concord were represented by Mark Stone in class 1, Anthony Teather and Graham Douglas in class 3, Mike Sullivan in class 5, Trevor Martin and Barry Hathaway in class 7, the junior saloons of Beth Embling and Victoria Stone, Paul Maxim in Stock Hatch, David Saunders and Barry Hathaway in class 8 and the ladies of Lianne Teather and Sharon Douglas in the 3’s, Kelly Thomas in Stock Hatch and Lynn Thomas in 8.

Mark’s results in the class 1 improved over the heats, including a 3^rd in heat two and a 2^nd in heat three. This qualified him for the B final, but unfortunately was unable to run.

The class three boys had mixed fortunes. Dougie’s weekend never took off when unfortunately in the first race the engine died, this put both him and Sharon out for the rest of weekend. Anthony however had a good bag of results with a 3^rd in heat one and a 1^st in heat two. This put him comfortably in the A final of the class, where after many reruns he collected one of many Essex trophies coming 2^nd.

Mike had his best weekend so far in the class five with a 2^nd in heat one, 3^rd in heat two and another 2^nd in heat three. This put him as second qualifier for the A final, where he ran another strong race with a 6^th.

Trevor had his very first meeting of the year, but picked up where he left off last year with two 2^nd’s from heats one and three. Barry also had a successful weekend in the class on his second meeting out in it, with 1^st’s in heats two and three – he had been leading heat one by half a lap before he got a puncture that put him to the back of the field. These results got both the guys into the A final, where after a very close four-way battle between the two of them and another two cars they came out on top with Barry finishing in 2^nd and Trevor 3^rd. Yep, that’s another two trophies.

Victoria in the junior saloon was plagued with the same problem in heat three which stopped Mark racing the final, but a 4^th and 5^th in heats one and two saw how competitive she is. Beth had a weekend of two halves, with 2^nd places in heats two and three putting her into the A final. However after leading the final, a mistake saw her drop down the grid, and then a tag from another car took her out of the final.

Paul had a mixed weekend, with his best result coming in heat three with a 3^rd. His results weren’t quite enough to get him into the final, but he wasn’t far off.

David’s weekend wasn’t as successful as we’ve seen in the past, but he was still up there in the battles, not giving in with his best result a 4^th in heat two. Barry had another set of great results in this class with a 2^nd in heat two and a 3^rd in heat three, putting him as the last qualifier for the A final. In the final he went on to collect his second trophy of the weekend with a 3^rd place.

The ladies of the club also had a successful weekend. Unfortunately for Sharon she didn’t get a run, but the rest of us girls came home with a trophy. Lianne had a consistent run over the weekend with getting 2^nd places in all three heats, but as the last runner of the class she came home with one better, a 1^st place trophy. I had my first outing in 8 years, and although the only lady racing Stock Hatch I came away with three heat wins and a 1^st place trophy. I did however race with two class 4’s and two class 6’s and each time was lapped. More speed for me next time. The hardest fought trophy of the ladies was Lynn’s. A good run in the heats including a 2^nd in heat one and a 3^rd in heat two saw her qualify for the A final, where after a race long battle she came home in 4^th.

With anyone finishing 1^st or 2^nd in the A finals able to race in both the Men’s and Ladies Champion of Champions, we had many potential runners, but it was only Barry who went out in the class 7. A busy field of cars saw him work his way up to 6^th.

My next planned stop on tour is the MAP Open on 4^th and 5^th June at the Evesham track. Hopefully I will see some of you there and even better see some of you beforehand.

	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3	Final	CoC
Mark Stone C931E (Class 1)	5th	3rd	2nd	NS (B)	X
Anthony Teather C266E (Class 3)	3rd	1st	4th	2nd (A)	NS
Mike Sullivan C11E (Class 5)	2nd	3rd	2nd	6th (A)	X
Trevor Martin C18E (Class 7)	2nd	5th	2nd	3rd (A)	X
Barry Hathaway C183E (Class 7)	7th	1st	1st	2nd (A)	6th
Beth Embling C535E (JnrSal)	7th	2nd	2nd	BF	X
Victoria Stone C931E (JnrSal)	4th	5th	NS	X	X
Paul Maxim C23E (SH)	5th	6th	3rd	X	X
David Saunders C12E (Class 8)	5th	4th	6th	X	X
Barry Hathaway C83E (Class 8)	5th	2nd	3rd	3rd (A)	X
Lianne Teather C266E (Lds3)	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	NS
Kelly Thomas Y76 (LdsSH)	1st	1st	1st	1st	NS
Lynn Thomas C21E (Lds8)	2nd	3rd	5th	4th	X

 

UKAC Round 1 – My Experience

After 8 years of many people trying to convince me to get back into a race car after my last very brief experience, at the end of last season I finally agreed to give it another go. At the time of agreeing to it I’m sure that I was convinced that I wouldn’t actually do it. How wrong was I? Over the course of the winter I looked forward to it more and more, and was actually up for the challenge.

All that changed though Saturday morning when I got in the car to check it for size and it suddenly dawned on me what the hell I was about to do. Not only was it the first time I had got in the car, as it was a friend’s from York, Gareth Yeomans, whose car I would be racing, it was the first time I had got in any Autograss car! The intention was to have a go at a club meeting before hand in any car, just to get a bit of practice in before going away to a big meeting and embarrassing myself in front of hundreds of people. Well that didn’t happen! So the first time I drove the car was up to the start line for my first race.

So with a very shaky leg and feeling a little bit sick I made my way up to the start line for the first race. Even though I was out with 4 other ladies I was the only one in the Stock Hatch class that I was racing, my theory then was that I was just going to go out there and learn and hopefully enjoy it. I think I succeeded, I was very slow and did get lapped by the other cars, but I was happy, I did it! Even if everyone else told me I needed a lot more right foot.

Feeling a lot better than I had done before the first race, I headed back out again for heat two, although still with a shaky leg with the same idea as before, just go out there and get used to it. And although I was still lapped by the other cars again, I felt like I went a bit quicker and I certainly enjoyed it that little bit more. Day 1 done, I did it, I got back in the car, I felt proud of myself.

Sunday morning, and I was ready for day two, third heat and final. But before that, another first for the weekend, I got called for my first breathalyser as a driver. No need to panic, I behaved myself Saturday night, and passed no issue.

So third race was up, and again still feeling a bit nervous, I went out there and did it and again got that little bit quicker. Which I also did again in the final.

Despite not being very quick, I achieved what I wanted to achieve over the weekend. My aim was to firstly actually get in the car and out on the track, which I did. Also I wanted to go out there and improve with each race and get more confident, which I also felt like I did.

So from the outside it may not have looked very impressive, but inside that car and under the helmet, was one proud girl. I did something I never thought I would, and I knew that the very reason I was even there in the first place was watching down on me.